STANZAS.

(_Written on a stone, part of the ruins of Chertsey Abbey, Surrey_.)

(_For the Mirror_.)


From gayer scenes, where pleasure's mad career
Infects the milder avenues of thought,
Where secret Envy swells the note of Fear,
And Hope is in its own illusion caught.

Where, in Ambition's thorny path of power,
Contending votaries bow to toils of state,
I turn, regardless of the passing hour,
To trace the havoc of avenging fate.

Ne'er may the wanton love of active life
Control the sage's precepts of repose,
Ne'er may the murmurs of tumultuous strife
Wreck the tranquillity of private woes.

Here, on the crumbling relics of a stone,
O'er which the pride of masonry has smiled,
Here am I wont to ruminate alone.
And pause, in Fancy's airy robe beguil'd.

Disparting time the towers of ages bends,
Forms and indignant sinks the proudest plan,
O'er the neglected path the weed extends,